Blacks, whites donate organs at same rate, but need much greater among blacks

Organ bank managers are reaching out to the black community in an attempt to boost the number of blacks who register as organ donors. While blacks currently register at a rate commensurate with their population, demand for kidneys is higher in the black community because blacks are more likely to get diabetes or hypertension. (iStockphoto)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- African-Americans make up 26 percent of the population in Alabama, but represent 67 percent of the 3,395 people on the state’s kidney transplant waiting list, according to data from the Alabama Organ Center.

The racial disparity — a result of blacks’ proclivity toward hypertension and diabetes — is slightly less pronounced nationally, but still dramatic. Nationwide, African-Americans represent 14 percent of the population and 34 percent of the 70,292 on the nation’s kidney waiting lists, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health.

Ann Rayburn, senior manager of professional education for the Alabama Organ Center, said the disparity is not a result of African-Americans donating in numbers lower than their share of the population. Both in Alabama and nationally, blacks register to donate at a rate consistent with their numbers, and thanks to advances in immunosuppressive drugs, race is rarely a factor in matching donor organs with recipients.

But the organ center is reaching out to the black community in an attempt to sign up more donors and close the gap. Outreach workers are visiting schools, churches and even — at the invitation of organizers — family reunions. Getting people to register as donors is not always a hard sell, she said, because most African-Americans are well aware of the dramatic need in the black community.

African-Americans die as a result of hypertension at a rate two times that of Caucasians, and they develop diabetes at a rate nearly twice that of whites. Research increasingly points toward genetic differences between the races as a culprit.

“You can go to an African-American church, and everybody knows somebody who’s been on dialysis,” Rayburn said. “It’s that prevalent.”

Among those who do hesitate to register as donors, many are motivated by one of two concerns, Rayburn said. A significant number of people believe that organ donors get substandard care in emergency departments, because doctors are anxious to recover donor organs; others believe their faith bars them from donating.

Some level of mistrust in the black community may be related to the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments, in which federal researchers, even into the 1970s, misled and failed to treat African-American subjects with syphilis. But Rayburn said mistrust in the medical establishment is cited as a reason for not donating by people of all races.

The truth, Rayburn said, is that emergency departments contact organ banks only after life-saving efforts have been exhausted, and most major religions explicitly allow donations or take no position on the matter.

The Alabama Organ Center encourages families to discuss donation as a group, and that’s just what LaVonda Brannon and her family did.

Her 21-year-old son Daniel Brannon died in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver three years ago this November, and his organs — including his kidneys — saved five lives.

As horrific as the experience of losing a child is, she said, knowing that others lived as a result was comforting.